Composition and process for treating yarn



Oct. 1, 1957 w. 1. HEAD v COMPOSITION AND PROCESS FOR TREATING YARN Filed June 24. 1954 willialnlflea el INVENTOR. By MK 21 M V. Nd!

ATTORNEW United States Patent COMPOSITIGN AND PROCESS FOR TREATING YARN This invention relates to a composition and process of treating yarn. More'particularly the invention concerns a yarn treating composition having special characteristics and properties which render it particularly useful in-the process of making loopy or bulky type synthetic yarn. a a

It is conventional in the textile industry to apply to yarn and fibers various-treating agents, textile assistants, lubricants and the like for the purpose of facilitating the processing of the yarn. For example, in winding, twisting or the like processing of yarn, it is desirable to havemedium on the yarn which facilitates the passage of the yarn over the rolls or guides. Hence a great number of compositions have been proposed for use in applying to yarns prior to and during the processing of the yarn in various manners. Many of these compositions contain a substantial content of oily materials andare sometimes specifically referred to as yarn lubricants.

There is carried out in the textile industry a process of treating continuous filament yarn for producing loops and whorls thereon for obtaining a softer, wooly-like, more bulky yarn. In further detail, yarn having 35-75 or more filaments per strand is drawn through an air jet with low or a minimum of tension. In this jet the continuous strand of yarn'is subjected to contact with a blast of air or the like gaseous medium which produces loops and whorls in a number of these filaments, particularlythose on the surface. There is then withdrawn from this jet the looped or bulked yarn which comprises a continuous filament product having the appearance of greater volume and softness and the like properties. The withdrawn yarn which has beenthus treated in a jet is then twistedand wound up.

In the passageof continuous filament yarn through a type of treatment as aforesaid, since the yarn is subject to contact with the, guides, and distortion, it has been customary to apply to the yarn the usual lubricants r textile assistants conventionally used in the art. While such yarn lubricants or textile assistants serve to minimize friction, impart softness or flexibility, prevent wear and the like -and thereby to have advantages, I have found that'such compositions may, in certain'respects, actually bel-workin g against the production of high quality loopy yarn at high productionrates. 1

. For example, itis very desirablethat the'loops which are formed in the yarnby" the process outlined be permanently. locked in, and not-be pulled out under any stresses which are placed on the looped yarn in subsequent processing. There. areseveral references in the trade journals'to the fact that heretofore it has been common for the loops in the yarn to be removed by sufficient stresses on the yarn. Normally the majority of the loops are locked insufficiently to resist the usual stresses encountered in'processing loopy yarn. However,

repeated stresses applied to'the loopy yarntend to work;

the loops out eventhough none of the applications of 2 the application of suitable yarn treating compositions it is possible to lock the loops into the yarn so firmly that they are not removed even by stresses of such magnitude as to break the yarn. This represents a highly desirable improvement over the prior art of making loopy yarn.

It is therefore apparent that the development of 'a special yarn treating composition which not only serves to protect the yarn against damage from yarn guide friction or the friction of other machinery parts, but which permits the production of a particularly good loopy yarn at high rates of production speeds, and substantially permanently locks the loops in, represents a highly desirable result. After extended investigation I have found a yarn composition and method of employment thereof in processes of the class referred to above, which greatly facilitates the production of loopy yarn.

This invention has for one object to'provide a new yarn treating composition. Another object is to provide a yarn treating composition which is particularly efiective in a process of converting conventional yarn to a substantially permanently looped yarn. Still another object is to provide a process of making looped yarn wherein the yarn treating composition is correlated with the process of looping theyarn. Still a further object is to provide a yarn treating composition which is particularly suitable for treating cellulose estertypes of continuous filament yarn. Another and particular object is to provide a composition and process particularly adapted to the conversion of conventional continuous filament yarn of a variety of deniers to loop yarn. Other objects will appear hereinafter.

I have found that in making looped yarn rather than employ the conventional yarn lubricants having low static frictional properties and antistatic electrical properties, that the yarn treating composition should be of a scroopy, high static type as will be set forth in detail hereinafter.

For a more complete understanding of my invention reference is made to the attached drawing forming apart of the present specification. The attached drawing is a semi-diagrammatic side elevation view showing one type of arrangement which may be used in carrying out the process of the present invention and producing the new product of the present invention.

In the attached drawing 4 designates a source of multi-filament yarn which is to be processed by the present invention. This source of yarn may be from supply packages of any convenient size, not shown. This yarn to be treated is passed in contact with roll'7 which roll is positioned in the trough 8. The trough 8 contains the special treating composition of the present invention. By the rotation of the roll 7 which is bathed in the special treating composition 9, the roll 7 picks up the treating composition and applies it to the yarn undergoing processing in accordance with the present invention.

It will be noted that the trough 8 and associated parts are generally similar in arrangement to the apparatus described in U. S. Patent 2,161,354, referred to hereinafter. As referred to hereinafter, the exact manner of applying the treating agent of the present invention is not a limitation on the present invention inasmuch as in place of roll 7 wicks or other suitable applicator means may be used. A

The multi-filament yarn, after having applied thereto the special treating composition of the present invention, then passes around advancing roll 10 which. is a conventional type feed roll. From the feed .roll the yarn is fed to jet llsupplied by compressed air through conduit 5. The exact construction of this jet forms-no part of thepresent invention. For example, a jet constress are iexcessive.--. l have found,-however, that by struction such as shownin expired Taylor Patent 2,067,-

251 may be employed. It is suflicient that the yarn be subjected to turbulence which causes the formation of loops and curls on the yarn thereby bulking it.

The blown yarn emerging from jet 11 passes around a second roll 14 also of conventional construction. This second roll may be provided with a weighted idle roll 15 to prevent yarn slippage on.roll 14.

as a suitable textile assistant on the yarn, but permits the yarn to be looped or bulked to a much greater amount than heretofore obtainable and so locks in the loops as to resist pulling out even at the stress required to rupture the yarn.

A specific illustration of a composition in accordance with my invention is as follows:

From the second roll the processed yarn carrying the Percent special treating composition of the present invention is Low viscosity mineral oil 60 led to a conventional bobbin type wind-up at 16. In Petroleum sulfonates this conventional bobbin wind-up any desired amount Terpene glycol ethers 10 of twist may be inserted in the yarn as it is wound on the Oleic acid 2.5 bobbin. Z-amino-Z-methyl-l-propanol 0.5

In further detail, in converting conventional continu- Water 7.0 ous filament yarn which may have 35 or more filaments therein, to loop yarn, one purpose of the treatment is The mineral Oil Component Which y he used y to secure a large number of loops or whorls in the filacomprise the Conventional yp of White mineral Oil ments so that the apparent volume or size of the filament a Solvent refilled P h Viscos'ity of the Oil y he bundle, yarn or strand is increased, thereby obtaining 0O h F about 50 seconds Sayhelt P to 115 Seconds increased bulk. Suchincrease in bulk, of course, causes vlseesltysomewhat of a contraction in the yarn. That is, the in- The Petroleum Sutfenate component refers to p put d output yam f d 11 am Set up d operated at ucts obtained by reaction of strong sulfuric acid on the speeds, f l t id for a h i l 20% unsaturated bodies of crude petroleum during the course contraction f th yarn d h fo mati f h loops of manufacture of white oils. These acidic sulfonates and the increase in, so to speak, external volume of the d are neutralized by reaction with Caustic to form the P yarn, Th actual increase i volume f the processed troleum sulfonates of commerce, also well known as yarns is measured and the theoretical percentage bulkmahogany Sulfohatesing efficiency may be expressed as the ratio of actual bulk The terPehe ether component We Prefer is in accordto theoretical b lk ti 100, time with the type of product described in Humphreys Another measure of bnlkiness is a specific volume Patent 2,136,011, Patehted November 93 rneasurement based on the cubic inch volume of one The Olete acid does not require further desel'iptien pound of bulk yarn and is compared with the specific (item to indicate that good q y material would he volume of unbulked yarn. This formation is obtained used- The Elmiho'methy1 P p p y is such as by winding under controlled tension enough yam onto described in Patent 2,139122 (Hess et a precision made spool to fill the spool. Then knowing Patented December 1933- the volume of the spool and the net-weight of the yarn The Percentages given are the P p of thuson the spool, it is possible to calculate the specific voltrethlg y Prefetted emhedimeht- However, the P ume of the yarn, B lk yarn d i h a 20% portions may be varied as follows: The mineral oil comtraction due to the feed roll speed differential has a g Peneht y fall in the range of from 40% 185% Of specific volume of 78.5 cu. in. per lb. as compared to the total- The Petroleum shltehetes y y from 32.5 forunbulked yarn. Bulk yarn with a 10% contrac- 5 to The tP glycol ethefs y y from tion has a specific volume of 62.5, and 30% contraction 4% t0 the fatty acid from 15% to 10% and the bulk yarn has a specific volume -of*86.2 cu. in./lb. A amine from 02% t0 5%, the speeifie amounts being Y-shaped cross-section filament 20% contraction bulk those necessary for complete blending and P p emulyarn has a specific volume f 96,5 i /1b sifiability of the total formulation. Also, certain of the The foregoing has been referred to as it provides a Components y he P y entirely replaced, as for comparative measuring basis which may be used for example the mineral Oil y he in P y describing the improvement obtainable by the present in- Placed y monohydric alcohol esters of fatty acids such vention. (it) as methyl oleate, butyl palrnitate, propyl stearate. The

Expressed in another manner, I have found that contetpeheglyeel ethets y be ep hi P entirely tinuous rnulti-filament yarn treated with prior art com y p y yd alcohols Such as thethylehe glyee1 y positions might be processed to obtain a certain volume ftitty alcohols Such as 'y 0r eleyl alcoholor bulk increase. On the other hand, the same type of The improvem n exhibited by y P p yarn when having the yarn treating composition of the sition is readily illustrated by the following table:

Agent No. 1 Composition of present invention Low Friction Lubri- High Friction Lubristatic cant static cant Percent material on yarn- 0.50 1. 1 2. 59 0. 4 1. 3 1. 9

Percent bulk efliciency 67.5 67.5 57.5 84 93.6 110 present invention applied thereto, and processed in a In the above table, Agent #1 was essentially comcomparable manner for securing volume increase, indiprised of low viscosity mineral oil of good quality which cated that by proceeding in accordance with my invenis frequently used in the textile trades for applying to tion it was possible to secure, for example 25.40% or yarn. It will be observed that 'when multi-filament coneven more improvement in .loopiness or bulking. tinuous yarn was subjected to processing for increasing I have found that a yarn treating composition con-l the bulk thereof that even whenusing Agent #1 in taining mineral oil, certain petroleum sulfonate derivaan amount greater than 2.5%, only a little over 50% tives, certain terpene' derivatives, long chain aliphatic efficiency was obtained in the volume or bulk increase.

acids, and certain alkylol amines not only functions Furthermore, under stress as many as 50% of the loops were.

pulled out. In contrast thereto, it will be observed that when usin-gthe composition of the present invention even with 0.4%, bulking to the extent of 84% was obtained. Still further runs were made using 2% of the composition of the present invention with the continued upward improvement in bulking to values in excess of the indicated 110%. Moreover, the loops did not pull out even at the breaking stress of the yarn. When using thehigher amounts of the composition of the present invention it is preferred toemploy two-step feed rolls in combination with the-twisters which :takeup'the bulk yam v V a The yarn treating composition of the present invention can be applied in any suitable manner to the yarn, preferably prior to the passage to the first feed roll. That is, the application can be from the neat oil or from aque ous emulsion by rollers, wick or any other suitable manner for applying a small amount, usually within the range of 1-2.5% to the yarn prior to its processing, twisting and forming into packages. A suitable apparatus is described in Imray U. S. Patent 2,161,354 of June 6, 1939.

After the application of a suitable amount of composition in accordance with the present invention, the yarn thus treated was processed for increasing its volume in accordance with general procedure already referred to above. That is, the yarn was fed from a feed roll through an air jet, the yarn being under a minimum of tension. In the jet the yarn was subjected to a blast of air which caused the formation of numerous loops and whorls thereon to produce yarn having increased volume as already discussed above. Thereafter the yarn was given a slight twist and wound up with only a small amount of tension. The yarn treated and its manner of treatment, both with Agent #1 and when using the composition of the present invention, were approximately the same in both instances in order to furnish abasis of comparison.

In addition to using Agent #1 of the prior art, other yarn treating compositions in conventional use were employed. That is, compositions employing various amino salts, contents of neats-foot oil and the like were tested. However, none of the compositions gave results comparable to the new composition of the present invention.

While it is not desired to be bound by any theory of operation concerning the present invention, the following commentary may be of assistance in better understanding the present invention. It is difiicult to explain the present invention in that there is no standard or universal quantitative measurement of static and the ratio of static to kinetic friction. Only a qualitative comparison can be made of the effect of various yarn treating compositions on yarn and processing. Thus, in general, it is only possible to say, for example, that one yarn treating composition has more static than another one, or that this composition has more scroop than some other composition. However, a low bulking efiiciency obtained by conventional yarn treating compositions apparently may be caused by the loops being pulled out of the yarn during the windup operation. or static characteristics of such compositions are not sufiicient to keep the filaments from slipping. On the other hand, a yarn treating composition in accordance with the present invention may be regarded as having certain scroopy, relatively high static properties as compared with conventional compositions as to permit loop retention after the process has put in the loops. My novel composition imparts sufiicient lubricity to the treated yarn so that it passes through yarn guides with facility and without frictional damage to the yarn; yet on the;

other hand, within the yarn body the lubricity is insuflicient so that the imparted loopiness and increase in volume are not materially reduced upon winding up of the yarn.

It is apparent from the foregoing that the new composition and process utilizing my composition, permit various synthetic yarns and particularly cellulose organic ester yarn to be processed to impart a high amount of substantially permanent loopiness or increase in volume to the yarn. While my process is particularly adapted to the treatment of cellulose ester yarn such as cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate propionate, cellulose acetate butyrate, certain of the principles herein may likewise be applied'to other synthetic yarn such as acrylonitrile yarns,

' loop size put into the yarn for increasing the volume or Therefore, the frictional bulk may vary from to A". be made such as to use sufiicient air pressure to break an appreciable percentage of the looped filaments and form a yarn having both a spun staple yarn and loopy yarn effect.

I claim:

1. A process of increasing the volume of a multi-filament continuous synthetic yarn which comprises applying a yarn treating composition containing a major amount of mineral oil, an amount of petroleum sulfonate from /2 to /3 of the amount of mineral oil, an amount of terpene ether /2 the amount of the sulfonate, and small contents of oleic acid and alkylol amine, feeding the treated yarn under low tension through a treatment which produces numerous loops in the filaments on the surface of the yarn, withdrawing the looped yarn from the treatment, twisting the treated yarn slightly and winding it up, said composition serving to substantially eliminate the pulling out of said loops under any stress up to the breaking point of the yarn.

2. A process for treating a multi-filament cellulose acetate yarn which comprises applying to the yarn from a small amount up to about 2% of a yarn treating composition containing substantial amounts of both mineral oil and petroleum sulfonate, said treating composition having scroopy and high static properties, subjecting the multi-filament cellulose acetate yarn to a blowing treatment which increases its bulk with greater than efilcienc'y as herein defined, twisting and winding up this cellulose acetate yarn which has been treated with the composition and blown, whereby said treating composition assists in permitting the retention of more than of the loops formed in the yarn.

3. The process which comprises applying to a multifilament cellulose ester yarn, a small amount of a yarn treating composition principally comprised of mineral oil and petroleum sulfonate but also containing small amounts of terpene ethers, oleic acid, amino propanol and water, subjecting the cellulose ester yarn which has been treated with the treating composition just described, to a processing which increases the bulk of the yarn with greater than 80% efliciency by putting a multitude of loops and coils into the yarn, then winding'up the treated yarn into a package whereby said treating composition aforementioned aids in the retention in'the yarn of the aforesaid bulkiness.

4. A process of producing a bulky, loopy yarn which is characterized by the resistance of the yarn to the removal of the loops, which comprises treating a multifilament continuous yarn with a yarn treating composition which contains mineral oil from 40-85%, petroleum sulfonate from 5-40% and small amounts of one or more of other ingredients from the group consisting of glycol ethers, fatty acids and aminoalcohols, subjecting the yarn which has been treated with the treating composition just described, to a processing which increases the bulk of the yarn with greater than 80% efficiency by Other changes may ass-tea;

5. As a new article of manufacture, a synthetic yarn having a plurality of loops and whorls thereon and characterized in that the hulkiness of the yarn is increased at least 20% as compared with a yarn without said loops and whorls, said yarn also carrying a coati g Of a yarn treating composition characterized by high scroop and static properties it imparts to the yarn, said composition containing substantial amounts of mineral oil and petroleurn sulfonate and smaller amounts of a terpene ether;

a long chain aliphatic acid and an alkylol amine,

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,986,945 Schwartz et a1. Jan. 8, 1935 2,079,803 Holtzelaw et a1. May 11, 1937 2,294,958 Caldwell Sept. 8, 1942 2,379,824 Murnrncny July 3, 1945 2,575,399 Seymour et al. Nov. 20, 1951 2,638,146 Rounseville et al M May 12, 1953 

1. A PROCESS OF INCREASING THE VOLUME OF A MULTI-FILAMENT CONTINUOUS SYNTHETIC YARN WHICH COMPRISES APPLYING A YARN TREATING COMPOSITION CONTAINING A MAJOR AMOUNT OF MINERAL OIL, AN AMOUNT OF PETROLEUM SULFONATE FROM 1/2 TO 1/3 OF THE AMOUNT OF MINERAL OIL, AN AMOUNT OF TERPENE ETHER 1/2 THE AMOUNT OF THE SULFONATE, AND SMALL CONTENTS OF OLEIC ACID AND ALKYLOL AMINE, FEEDING THE TREATED YARN UNDER LOW TENSION THROUGH A TREATMENT WHICH PRODUCES NUMEROUS LOOPS IN THE FILAMENTS ON THE SURFACE OF THE YARN, WITHDRAWING THE LOOPED YARN FROM THE TREATMENT, TWISTING THE TREATED YARN SLIGHTLY AND WINDING IT UP, SAID COMPOSITION SERVING TO SUBSTANTIALLY ELIMINATE THE PULLING OUT OF THE SAID LOOPS UNDER ANY STRESS UP TO THE BREAKING POINT OF THE YARN. 